


brothers in arms

by aliaaaaaa



Series: webgottrash tumblr prompts [39]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Fae & Fairies, Fae Magic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 16:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6666097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliaaaaaa/pseuds/aliaaaaaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They took an oath, to protect themselves and each other from harm, and they had drunk the elixir from their Elders’ cups, tasting sweetness on their tongues as they felt the Old Magick swimming in their veins, surrounding them, shielding them from danger and peril that would befall them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	brothers in arms

**Author's Note:**

> an anon actually requested for an angsty fic where everybody thinks Winters is dead and they have to leave him and then he just shows up out of the blue looking okay because Dick Winters is the second coming of Jesus. BUT, I wrote Fae AU instead HAHA because of [Casey_Wolfe](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Casey_Wolfe/pseuds/Casey_Wolfe) awesome Fae AU and I thought, why not? Might as well try it.
> 
> so here, my sloppy.

Having an epiphany when he was in the middle of a battle was not something that Web allowed himself to do often, but right now he felt foolish for defying his Elder’s words to be in this war. He felt the familiar regret gnawing inside his chest when bullets soared across the vast field; hitting trees and soft flesh of the soldiers, punctuating lungs and torsos, making blood gushed out like overflowing river during the rain.

He was having an epiphany that he would die here, trapped in the middle of this bloody battle; feeling the cold metal of bullets scattering around him, imagining the bullets piercing his body, imagining himself bleeding to death because he couldn’t use his fae ability to heal himself.

“ _WEBSTER_! Stop panicking! You’re making us panic!”

He heard Luz's voice next to him, loud and clear as he saw Winters ran through the ditches to get to the other side, and Web turned around only to see Roe’s dark eyes glaring at him, feeling agitated and anxious due to the emotions that Web had unknowingly broadcasted.

He took a deep breath, willing himself to sort his emotions, willing himself not to think too much.

They would be fine, _he_ would be fine. They took an oath, to protect themselves and each other from harm, and they had drunk the elixir from their Elders’ cups, tasting sweetness on their tongues as they felt the Old Magick swimming in their veins, surrounding them, shielding them from danger and peril that would befall them.

Web focused his senses back to reality, aware that Lieb was manning the machine gun; his fingers on the trigger, pulling and pulling and pulling; the noise deafening, too loud yet comforting, making him breathe easier.

Muck was yelling at Penkala to duck when the latter lifted his head to shoot at his moving target – a bullet soared past where his head was just there few second ago and Web closed his eyes again, expanding his protection shield to include his comrades that he now called brothers.

He felt Winters’ calming sense surrounding him, felt Roe’s warm healing touch ghosting over him, felt Luz’s jolt of adrenaline running through him. He was still terrified, yet he stomped down on that feeling and shouldered his rifle and started to shoot again.

Everything was chaotic, the sound of people yelling, hoarse voices screaming, for more mortars, for more ammos, for medic, for help.

He heard Winters yelling orders at them, he heard Martin repeating the order; keep moving, _keep moving_.

And then.

And then.

Someone shouted, ‘Winters down!’

‘ _WINTERS DOWN!_ ’

Web felt it happened, felt how the bullet pierced through him and his uniform was rapidly soaked with blood like hibiscus blooming on his body, making him gasp loudly in surprise, gritting his teeth when the pain ran through him like electric, as if he was the one who got shot. When he turned to search for Winters, Web saw him dropped down in between the tall grass, the sunlight catching on his fiery red hair, beaconing Web to come and rescue him.

He closed his eyes, trying to focus on Winters’ sense; trying to grasp their links, but all he could hear was Lieb cursing loudly; and someone yelling, ‘MEDIC! _MEDIC_!’

He felt Roe moving fast, running on light feet, anxious to cross the field, but bullets were still soaring, mortars were still blasting at them that Roe couldn’t get passed and someone, Toye, pulled Roe just before bullets soared passed at where he was standing before.

Defeated, Roe looked back to look at him, angry and frustrated that he couldn’t use his ability here without others not noticing.

“We have no choice but to leave Winters!” Someone shouted, Buck probably, looking wild eyed and anxious and angry, so very angry that his bright blue eyes turned dark.

“We can’t leave him, Buck! We have to get him!” Welsh shouted, ready to run across the field to retrieve his comrade, his friend.

“We can’t even get passed the fucking Krauts’ mortars, Harry! We have to leave him and come back for him later!” Buck yelled and Web just wanted everything to just stop, just stop so he could soar across the field and grab Winters back into safety.

But the bullets were still flying rapidly at them, as if the Krauts had never ending supply of ammo, as if God was playing a twisted joke on all of them for putting Winters in this situation.

“EVERYONE FALL BACK! LIEBGOTT, ALLEY, FALLBACK! TOYE! LUZ! WEBSTER! _FALL BACK_!”

He couldn’t do anything but fall back; leaving Winters to fend for himself, sensing his link; weak and faint, reaching out to him.

“ _Web_! C’mon!” Lieb shouted, and Malarkey pulled him by his collar, coaxing him to move.

*

(There were not many of them left in this new world.

They were the new generation of Faes; half fae, half human; a dying breed.

They didn’t know each other from before. They only knew that the other existed when the Elder had called them and arranged a meeting.

The first time they met with each other was when they kneeled before the Elders with the cup of Elixir in each of their hand. They stood in a circle, facing one another; Web was spell-bounded by Winters’ fiery red hair, by Roe’s dark deep eyes, and by Luz’s dazzling smile.

And when they tasted the sweet concoction on their tongues, they felt the old Magick binding them together.

‘ _From now, regardless of your descendants, you will be bonded together, brothers in arms and forever you shall look after one another. Forever, you shall be linked with one another in a bond that would protect you from harm_ ’.)

*

“I can’t feel him, Web,” Roe muttered, his voice low and rough, like he was bottling up his anger inside his chest.

“He’s still out there, I can feel him. But he’s weak,” Web sighed, rubbing his face as he looked around, seeing worried faces everywhere, feeling their exhaustion and anxiety seeping to his bones.

His eyes fell on Liebgott; sitting quietly in the corner, smoking and as if he could sense eyes on him, Liebgott looked up and locked eyes with Webster.

“We should go and get him then before it’s too late!” Luz suggested, always eager to move, always eager to do something.

Webster tore his eyes away from Liebgott to look at Luz who was already shouldering his rifle.

“And how do you supposed we do that? We can’t fly in broad daylight, Luz. Someone is bound to see us,” Web hissed low, pulling Luz back by his shoulder.

“Jesus, Web, _glamors_! Turn yourself into something! A bird maybe!” Luz said, throwing his hands up in frustration, trying to keep his voice low

“Don’t think that would work. We don’t have much energy to keep the glamor on for too long,” Roe mumbled softly, cigarette dangling from his lips, looking lost.

“Roe!”

They turned around to see Nixon walked quickly to them, eyes wide and face grim.

“You’re coming with me. We are assembling the men to search and rescue Lieutenant Winters,” Nixon said, and Webster could feel the tension straining underneath his skin, the frustration coming off from his flesh and making his heart flaring in anger and when he tilted his head, he saw the fea mark on Nixon’s arm. It looked old, like Nixon had been marked for years now.

Apparently, Roe and Luz saw it too, because they exchanged covert yet knowing look.

“We’re coming too,” Webster said, jumping off from the desk and shouldering his rifle and cuffing Luz around his collar to coax him to move. The least they could do was to follow Nixon and used him as a guide to search for Winters. His fae mark would lead them to him.

“You think he knows about us?” Luz asked when they were gathering ammo and listening to the plan Nixon had came up with.

“I don’t think so. He would drag us first thing when we came back without Winters, demanding that we help search for his mate,” Webster replied distractedly, feeling his skin prickled at the back of his neck and when he turned to look, Liebgott was looking at him, his lips tugged up into a small smile.

“You keep eyeing him,” Luz observed, and then he grinned too wide. “Oh ho ho, don’t tell me, he’s your–”

“Luz! Focus!”

*

They couldn’t find Winters.

There was no body at the last spot that Web had saw him.

But he knew Winters was still alive because he could faintly feel the link between them. And he knew Roe and Luz felt it too from the way they were frantically searching around the area; Roe murmuring in Creole, casting his Magick to reveal Winters.

But no luck.

“Maybe he went back to the realm to get help?” Luz asked, looking around the field and plopped down on the exact spot that Winters had dropped down.

“Can’t be. He’s still here, I can feel him and no one came to help him too ‘cause I only sense him,” Web said, manipulating his emotion to search for Winters’ call of distress. But none came.

Only his faint calming sense seeped into him.

“Unseelie.”

Web turned to look at Roe, his eyes dark and dangerous again.

“Here?”

“Yeah, you couldn’t detect his sense because he has masked it. But my Magick can and I think he has Winters,” Roe explained, once again chanting his Creole Magick following the Unseelie trails.

“Why is an Unseelie doing in the army? I thought they didn’t mingle with human?” Luz asked, his giddy emotion bouncing against Webster.

“Don’t go and pull a prank on him,” Webster warned, knew very well that if Luz decided to be mischievous with the Unseelie, there would be hell to pay.

“Oh, I don’t know, Web. If the Unseelie is a Kraut, I might as well have fun with him,” Luz grinned, shifting his face to something scary that Web tripped him.

And then Roe put up his hand, and crouched and Web could feel Winters’ sense all at once, coming to him so strong that he had to take a step back.

They were crouching at the edge of the field, where the grasses were taller and the trees twisted with each other too tightly, as if preventing anyone from entering it.

“Can you feel that?” Roe whispered, his palm extended towards the forest and when Web touched his elbow, he could feel something dark and grim and dangerous traveling up his veins and dipping through his heart and he felt conflicting emotions between hate and kill and worry and concern.

Web gasped out loud, feeling Luz’s hand on his back, supporting him from falling down.

“Winters is alive. The Unseelie is helping him and he… feels conflicted about it. Like he is questioning himself… Why–” Web muttered heavily, shaking the dark feeling from his sense and feeling Roe’s warm touch gliding up his sense.

“You’re okay, calm down,” Roe said, voice gentle and his eyes are dark and bright again.

“Luz, I think you should do your thing and check on Winters,” Roe suggested, hand still pressed close to Web’s chest.

Luz saluted him with two fingers and shape-shifting himself to a small fox, scurrying around next to Web’s head, brushing his tail on Web’s face before disappearing into the forest.

*

Ron Speirs didn’t know why he had dragged this Seelie into the safety of this dark forest.

He should have left him to bleed to death on the battlefield. It was only courageable for soldiers to do so. But something had propelled him to help this man with his fiery red hair that glinted underneath the sun.

Ron was not immune to shiny things anyway, and this Seelie, this Captain Winters’ hair was so shiny, he got momentarily blinded by the color.

“Your friends are at the entrance, anxious about your well-being,” he told the resting Winters, voice low.

He had dragged Winters into the safety of the forest once the Krauts had ran off when they saw him in his Unseelie form, screaming for their mothers as he laughed and baring his teeth for them to see.

It was uncommon for Unseelie to help heal the Seelie but drastic times called for drastic measures and he had transferred his Magick into Winters, feeling his calming sense mingled with his own chaotic sense.

He presumed he did it because Winters was his brothers in arms, so to speak, because here in this war, they were soldiers first instead of faes.

“Your mate is here too,” he informed Winters and the red haired fae glanced at the entrance of the forest, still weak but his bleeding had stopped and he had helped taking out the bullet that lodged in his side.

“You could sense Nixon even without seeing his mark?” Winters asked, voice raspy.

“He had your sense surrounding him since back in Toccoa,” Speirs said, poking at the fire to keep them warm.

“You knew about us since Toccoa yet you didn’t say anything.”

Speirs could hear the chiding in Winters’ tone and he smiled, amused by the whole situation.

“I didn’t think you would like to see an Unseelie among the humans. You might get the wrong idea that I’m about to do something dangerous to them,” Speirs said, looking at Winters with grim expression, eyes dangerous.

“Why are you here then?”

Speirs poked at the fire again, aware of the bouncing energy running passed them.

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” he finally said, shooting his hand out to grab the fox by its tail and dragged it closer to him.

“Stop. Running,” Speirs grunted into the fox’s face, shaking him slightly and releasing it when the fox shifted its form, coughing from being strangled by Speirs.

“Luz!”

“ _Motherfucker_!” Luz swore loudly, ready to punch Speirs only to be held back by Winters cuffing his collar.

“Luz! Stop!”

Speirs grinned at Luz, all teeth and menacing look, readying himself to fight.

“Stop both of you! This is not the time to fight!” Winters shouted and pulled Luz back from lunging at Speirs and then he coughed; non stop and loud that he had to bend his body to stop it.

“Get your friends, he needs them,” Speirs said to Luz, moving to sit next to Winters, his palm over the bullet wound as Luz scurried fast to the entrance of the forest.

“You’re okay, your healer friend is here,” he murmured calmly, his palm hovering over the wound, feeling conflicted about transferring his Magick because, already too much was being shared and Seelie usually couldn’t stand Unseelie’s Magick because of the different senses.

Speirs was saved from making a decision when his palm was knocked off by Roe’s and Winters immediately stopped coughing when Roe’s palm glided over his wound, murmuring in calm Creole, telling Winters that ‘he’s safe now, that they’re here to get him back to safety,’ all the while his dark eyes trained on Speirs, not trusting. Not yet.

“Web, a little help here,” Roe demanded, and Web placed his palm on Winters’ chest, smiling at him when Winters blinked his eyes to look at them when he felt Web’s protection sense seeping into his skin, making him stronger and more awake, pulling his mind off from the dark swirl.

And Speirs watched them worked together to save Winters, watched how Winters’ red hair became fiery again from the shared Magick and senses.

He felt something jolted in his chest, something like longing, something like yearning; wanting to be part of them.

He turned around instead, becoming one with the forest and walked away.

*

When they got back to the battalion CP, they were flocked by the men with cheers and pats on their back, happy and overjoyed that Lieutenant Winters was alive and well, even though he looked pale.

Nixon was staying close to Winters ever since they carried him out from the forest, and Webster could feel relief rolling off of him in waves, saw the worried in Nixon eyes only to be washed away by Winters’ soft touch on his hand.

He saw Speirs lurking in the background among the cheering men and Web couldn’t pick up what he was feeling but he could see longing on Speirs’ face only briefly because he masked it.

“Everyone! Our Lieutenant is safe and it’s all thanks to Lieutenant Speirs for staying with him and helping him until the rescuers arrived!”

Nixon announced and the mask on Speirs’ face crumbled into genuine surprise, shocked that Winters chose to acknowledge his help because he was so sure that the Seelie would push him aside because he was after all the Unseelie.

Web smiled then, feeling the genuine happiness rolling of from Speirs, mixed with pleasure surprise and annoyance; probably feeling annoyed at himself for being happy.

Luz and Roe exchanged looks with him, and the former shrugged his shoulders, trusting Winters’ sense to trust Speirs and Roe sighed slightly, and muttered a soft, ‘fine’ before lighting up a cigarette.

Winters’ red hair glinted in the weak afternoon sun, lighting up the whole place, spreading calm all over them and Web absorbed the genuine happy feeling into his sense, grinning widely when he turned to look at Liebgott who was already looking at him.

Maybe, just maybe, Web would get the courage from Luz to tell Liebgott about his true self.

**Author's Note:**

> first posted on [webgottrash](http://webgottrash.tumblr.com/post/143435025177/you-should-totally-fo-angst-where-everybody-thinks)


End file.
